A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in tri-state transportation news.
Winners
Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio — On a platform that included a Vision Zero policy, the StreetsPAC-endorsed candidate Bill de Blasio was elected mayor of New York City on Tuesday with 73 percent of the vote.
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop — Mayor Fulop is making good on his promise to expand bike lanes in Jersey City.
New Jersey — With Senator Cory Booker’s assignment to the Environment & Public Works and Commerce Committees, and Senator Menendez still at the helm of the Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development, the Garden State now has representation on all three transportation policy committees in the Senate.
River LINE — Ridership continues to rise as the end of the River LINE’s first decade of service nears.
Honorees of Tri-State’s 20th Anniversary Benefit — Tri-State will recognize founding board members Richard Kassel, Charles Komanoff, James T.B. Tripp and Jeffrey Zupan, as well as NJDOT, AARP-New Jersey and Action Wheels Bike Shop owner Patty Woodworth, at tomorrow’s 20th Anniversary Benefit.
Losers
AASHTO — With no fewer than nine mentions of “flexibility” in its resolution supporting a reauthorization of MAP-21, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials is essentially asking that the next federal transportation bill be a “blank check to build more highways.”
Connecticut commuters — Elected officials and advocates testified last week that “years of deferred maintenance” on Metro-North has compromised the “safety and economic well-being” of Connecticut commuters.
Re: River Line – There are two sides to every coin.
One could also say: At the end of a decade of service, ridership is at a pitiful level for a light rail line 34 miles long and for which only a $1.50 fare is charged to ride the entire length.
While there has been some Transit Oriented Development along the line, it has not been sufficient to boost ridership to respectable levels. And this is in the most densely populated state in the nation. There were many other places, even in the southern part of the state, that would have been better uses for New Jersey’s transit dollars.
Perhaps if CT and CTDOT had gone after proper funding for capital improvements on the NH line rather than federal dollars for #buswayboondoggle, deferred maintenance wouldn’t be an issue?
As a transit advocate who works with AASHTO on a number of matters, I think many transit advocates tend to over demonize them. They are more than a little committed to multi-modalism. Yes, they prefer the “make the pie bigger for transportation/infrastructure” approach but that’s not so bad an idea. Advocates need to work to reform state transportation departments they consider unenlightened rather than expecting the U.S. DOT to solve all of their problems.